UNSETTLING NEWS POUND PLAN WOULD LEAVE HUMAN HOMELESS.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
At 90, Viola viola: see violin. viola Stringed instrument, the tenor member of the violin family. In appearance it is almost identical to the violin but slightly larger; its strings are tuned a fifth lower. Winstead just keeps on giving and giving. Back in the late 1970s, Caltrans took three acres of her Lake View Terrace property for the new 210 Freeway, leaving her with just under two acres. Last week, she got a letter from the city saying it wants the rest of her land for a new animal shelter "Dog Pound" redirects here. For the rap group, see Tha Dogg Pound. An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. in the northeast San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . She's as civic-minded as the next person, Viola says, but, enough's enough. She already gave once. She's not moving out now for a dog pound. The way Viola sees it, she's got two, maybe three good years left, and she wants to live those years out peacefully in the same house she's called home for the past 60 years on Foothill Boulevard The following streets are named Foothill Boulevard:
On their farmland, she and her late husband, Harold, grew citrus citrus Any of the plants that make up the genus Citrus, in the rue family, that yield pulpy fruits covered with fairly thick skins. The genus includes the lemon, lime, sweet and sour oranges, tangerine, grapefruit, citron, and shaddock (C. maxima, or C. grandis; also called pomelo). fruit to sell in their family grocery store in Burbank. Later, she cultivated the land into a commercial iris farm where people from all over Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. came to buy her beautiful flowers. ``When I got to be 85 or 86, I just couldn't do it anymore,'' she said Monday. ``My eyesight's going and my heart's not too good, either. ``All I want to do now is live out my life peacefully in this house I know every inch of.'' That was her plan, anyway, until Wednesday when she walked out to the mailbox A simulated mailbox in the computer that holds e-mail messages. Mailboxes are stored on disk as a file of messages, a database of messages or as an individual file for each message. The standard mailboxes are usually In, Out, Trash and Junk (Spam). and found a letter from the city addressed to her. ``What's the city want with me?'' Viola wondered. Turns out the same thing it wanted from her neighbor Mike Prodan, who owns a business called Valley Concrete Placing. Their land. The city was offering $780,000 for Viola's two acres, and a little more than $300,000 for Prodan's acre. ``It's not the money, we just don't want to sell and move, either,'' said Prodan. ``I've already contacted the city to reject the offer, and told them I've hired an attorney. ``I told Viola I'd look after her and help her fight this because it's just not right,'' he said. ``Some guy signs a letter, and a sweet, 90-year-old widow who's not a burden on any government institutions, who takes care of herself, and lives alone, gets displaced displaced see displacement. for a dog pound?'' David Pascal, assistant general manager of the city's General Services Department, which sent out the letters, said his office was only the messenger, so don't get mad at them. ``The Animal Services Department selects the site and develops the appraisals, then my staff reviews them for accuracy before we send out the offer letters,'' Pascal said. ``If they don't accept the offer, which these people aren't, it goes back to the animal services project manager to discuss the alternatives, which could include looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a new site.'' Prodan says he wonders whether anyone from the city bothered to get out of their car when they made this site selection to find out exactly who lived in that old house the city wanted to buy? ``Did anyone bother to knock on Noun 1. knock on - (rugby) knocking the ball forward while trying to catch it (a foul) rugby, rugby football, rugger - a form of football played with an oval ball rugby, rugby football, rugger - a form of football played with an oval ball Viola's door to find out a little, 90- year-old widow has been living there since 1942 and was scared to death about moving?'' Anyone want to bet against the answer being no? ``I had no idea before receiving the offer letter that the city was looking to buy my property,'' Viola said. ``No one ever came by to talk or came inside my house or on my property.'' They wouldn't, said Linda Gordon, project manager for animal services. ``It's not our policy to stop and talk to people,'' she said. ``We were looking for three acres in the Northeast Valley, and this parcel on Foothill was selected. ``Our goal is to move our shelters out of industrial areas and back alleys to major streets to get the traffic, and become part of the community,'' she said. It was still too early to say yet what the city's next move would be on this selection site since the offer letters were only mailed out last week, Gordon said. Viola's son, Dudley, figures the city will have about as much luck getting his mother to move as he has - none. ``I've tried to get my mom to move for years, but this is her home, where all her memories and comforts are,'' he said. ``She's not going anywhere without a fight.'' Certainly not so the city can build a dog pound. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Viola Winstead, 90, here with her son, Dudley, has been offered $780,000 for her home so a city animal shelter can be built. (2) Viola Winstead, who has lived in her Foothill Boulevard home for 60 years, still mows her own lawn. Michael Owen
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